‘Safe, reliable and affordable’: New bus service aims to make notorious Highway of Tears less dangerous – British Columbia

As a BC Transit bus swings opens its door in front of the Pine Centre Mall in Prince George, a small crowd of people carrying duffel bags and backpacks file on.

They each stuff $5 into the fare box to take the three-hour ride from Prince George to Burns Lake, a community to the west along B.C.’s Highway 16, a 720-kilometre remote stretch of road that’s also known as the Highway of Tears.

“They should have put this bus up years ago before people started going missing,” said Roger Joseph, 61, who was seated by a window.

These images are of 18 women and girls whose deaths and disappearances are part of the RCMP’s investigation of the Highway of Tears in British Columbia. The women were either found or last seen near Highway 16 or near Highways 97 and 5. (Individual photos from Highwayoftears.ca)

This bus trip is possible because of two new subsidized routes that run along part of Highway 16 between Prince George and Smithers that officials hope will reduce hitchhiking and provide safe, reliable and affordable transit.

Along this northern highway, communities and First Nations reserves are far and few between. At times traffic is sparse, and it can feel hopelessly remote if you need to go somewhere and have no ride to get there.

Roger Joseph is using the new bus service because his daughter felt it was too dangerous for him to hitchhike. (Briar Stewart/CBC)

After Joseph lost his driver’s licence eight years ago, he turned to hitchhiking as a way to make the 230-kilometre trip to Prince George to visit his three daughters. It would take him all day to find someone to pick him up along the highway, and it left his family anxious.

“My daughter, she said, ‘Daddy, I don’t want you hitchhiking. You’re always hitchhiking and we’re afraid you might catch a ride with the wrong person.'”

A fear many share

That’s a fear shared by many who have walked the highway, or who have driven past others alone on the shoulder.

“Family members will not let family members get on the highway anymore,” said Renata Heathcliff, 49.

In her younger days, she was an avid hitchhiker, recalling a scary incident she and a girlfriend had one night when a two-seater car pulled up while they were walking toward Prince George.

The driver opened the door and motioned to the passenger seat saying he had room for just one of them. They both slammed the door and walked away.

A sign near the community of Moricetown, B.C., reminds women about the dangers of hitchhiking on Highway 16 also known as the ‘Highway of Tears.’ (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

Today, she can’t imagine hitchhiking let alone hitchhiking on the Highway of Tears.

“That’s just not possible. It’s just not safe,” Heathcliff said.

Without a driver’s licence or a car, she had been paying people to drive her from her home on the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation. And with no job, those trips proved too expensive.

‘Safe, reliable and affordable’

One runs between Prince George and Burns Lake, and the other begins in Burns Lake and goes farther west to Smithers. Each trip costs $5, which is about a tenth of the price currently charged by Greyhound to make a similar trip.

The bus service travels along a long stretch of highway spanning B.C.’s remote northwest region. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

One route between Prince George and Burns Lake averages 20 riders a day, while the other, 12.

“This initiative was about introducing a transit service that was safe, reliable and affordable,” said Chris Fudge, a senior regional transit manager at BC Transit.

BC Transit is able to offer the $5 fare because two-thirds of the operating costs are covered by the province, with the remaining portion, just over $129,000, paid for by the communities and First Nations groups along the route.

Many of them had been lobbying for this type of service for years, and some of the most vocal were driven by their own loss.

The death of Mary Teegee’s cousin Ramona Wilson was part of the reason she and many others pushed for the new bus service. (Chris Corday/CBC)

‘Precious jewel’

“It’s definitely something I have been personally committed to,” said Mary Teegee, executive director of Child and Family Services at Carrier Sekani Family Services.

“We lost one of our precious, precious jewels, and because of that, you look at all of the need for safety,” Teegee said.

Richard Skin says he’s pleased the new bus service is available. (Briar Stewart/CBC)

While the motivation for the bus service was to make it safer for people to travel along Highway 16, Teegee said there was also a desire to make it easier for people to get around, whether to shop or go to the doctor.

On a Wednesday morning in September, Richard Skin, 60, was taking a Smithers-bound bus heading for the community of Houston to go to a medical clinic.

“This is pretty nice to have a transit system like this,” he said.

Richard Skin felt he couldn’t wait a number of hours for the bus to return, so he tried to hitchhike back to his community. (Chris Corday/CBC)

A few hours later, he was seen on the side of the highway with this thumb out, trying to catch a ride home after his doctor’s appointment. He didn’t know the bus made a return trip.

As it wouldn’t be there for a few more hours, he decided to keep hitchhiking even though he admitted it was going to be difficult to get a ride by “a small community in the middle of nowhere.”

‘A dangerous highway’

Currently the bus routes run on alternating days, and they don’t connect the entire highway, although BC Transit hopes to add another section later this fall that will link the city of Terrace with New Hazelton.

Officials say they are working to educate the public and increase awareness about the new service and are reviewing the routes.

Heathcliff believes people in her First Nations community know about the new transit line, but she is frustrated that more haven’t been using it. She still sees people hitchhiking along the road.

“I see women out there and I don’t understand why they’re not getting it,” she said.

“That’s a dangerous highway.”

The buses on the new service aren’t always full, but officials believe more people will start using it. (Chris Corday/CBC)